A magical coronation to break the calm of an Olympic day. Imperials on the ice, Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron finally won the only title that was missing from their list and offered the French delegation an eleventh medal, the third in gold, at the Beijing Olympics. A metal to conquer, this Tuesday, for Tess Ledeux, who will see the final of the slopestyle after being scared during the qualifications. We summarize everything that happened on Monday.
Papadakis and Cizeron, the culmination
An embrace of several seconds on the Beijing ice rink, after a dazzling performance to the sound of Gabriel Fauré’s Elegy, and the explosion of joy when the result was announced. Four years after Pyeongchang’s disappointment and a silver medal following a dress problem, Gabriella Papadakis, 26, and Guillaume Cizeron, 27, won gold in ice dancing at the Olympics of winter. The only title that was missing from their huge list.
Twenty years after the crowning of Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat in Salt Lake City, the French have beaten their main rivals, the Russians Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov, and won a new world record (226.98 points).
Tess Ledeux is scared … but will see the final
She had burst into tears six days ago after her bitter-tasting silver medal in the big air final, surprisingly overtaken in the last run by Chinese star Eileen Gu, Tess Ledeux, 20, this time fingers crossed in slopestyle qualifying. After falling in the first run, she released a more qualitative second run under pressure, despite a few errors, and had to wait feverishly for the passage of several competitors to validate her place in the final.
Ninth, far behind the Chinese Eileen Gu, third, or the 19-year-old Estonian nugget, Kelly Sildaru (86.15 points), in the lead, she will try to win gold this Tuesday (2:30 a.m.) in the final.
Lucile Lefèvre disguised as a tiger
For the last competition of her career, 26-year-old Frenchwoman Lucile Lefèvre, with a knee injury and unable to defend her chances in Big Air snowboard qualifying, donned a tiger suit, in reference to the new year Chinese.
A stunt achieved with the help of the Swiss Nicolas Huber, owner of the disguise and silver medalist in slopestyle at the 2017 World Snowboard Championships, who agreed to lend him this outfit much appreciated by the Chinese public. The one who has two World Cup podiums now wants to devote herself to her father’s sailing school.
No surprise for Margot Boch in bobsleigh
The 22-year-old Frenchwoman did not manage to thwart the predictions. In the last two rounds of the monobob final, in bobsleigh, Margot Boch finished eleventh. The two Americans, Kaillie Humphries, 36, and Elana Meyers Taylor, 37, dominated the competition by winning the first two places. Canadian Christine de Bruin, 32, finished third.
Kamila Valieva cleared to compete despite testing positive
Tested positive at the end of December for a banned substance (trimetazidine), the Russian prodigy Kamila Valieva, was authorized by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to participate in the individual event of the Olympic Games this Tuesday (short program) and this Thursday (free program).
“Preventing the athlete from competing in the Olympics would cause him irreparable harm”, ruled the Court, without ruling on the merits of the case, even though his young age (under 16) implies specific rules of evidence. and reduced penalties. The teenager, Olympic champion in the figure skating team event in Beijing, had been provisionally suspended by the Russian anti-doping agency (Rusada).
Imperial Canada in women’s hockey
Big favorites in Beijing, the Canadians largely dominated (10-3) Switzerland in the semi-finals of women’s hockey and beat their best total of goals scored in an Olympic tournament.